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Convivencia and the Politics of Religious Identity Gregory Baker Western Oregon University, [email protected]

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Convivencia and the Politics of Religious Identity Gregory Baker Western Oregon University, Gbaker12@Mail.Wou.Edu Western Oregon University Digital Commons@WOU Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History) Department of History - 2015 Manipulating the Medieval Past: Convivencia and the Politics of Religious Identity Gregory Baker Western Oregon University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/his Part of the European History Commons, and the History of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Baker, Gregory, "Manipulating the Medieval Past: Convivencia and the Politics of Religious Identity" (2015). Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History). Paper 41. http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/his/41 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at Digital Commons@WOU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History) by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@WOU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Manipulating the Medieval Past: � Convivencia and the Politics of Religious Identity � Written by: � Gregory Baker � Senior Seminar: HST499 � Professor John L. Rector � Western Oregon University � May 28, 2015 � Primary Reader: Dr. Elizabeth Swedo � Secondary Reader: Dr. Patricia Goldsworthy-Bishop � Copyright © Gregory Baker, 2015 � 1 The Historical Significance of Convivencia Beginning in the early 8th century CE, Muslim military forces under the authority of the Umayyad Caliphate swept across and seized political control over much of the Iberian Peninsula, recognized today as the geographic home of the modern countries of Spain and Portugal. Taking advantage of political turmoil in the contemporary Visigoth kingdom just as the Visigoths had in turn taken control of the peninsula from the Roman Empire centuries prior, the Muslim conquerors established their own political realms from which the religion of Islam eventually spread to join the other two Abrahamic faiths already present in the various communities of the peninsula. While the remaining Christian realms in the northern part of the peninsula, beginning with the Kingdom of Asturias, slowly reconquered this land from Muslim rule throughout the turbulent centuries of the medieval period, communities adhering to the three distinct Abrahamic faiths - Islam, Judaism, and Christianity - coexisted side by side for centuries, through means both peaceful and violent, throughout much of the medieval era. The exact nature of this “coexistence”, however, is still the subject of vigorous academic dispute today. The term convivencia is a Spanish word that, when translated into English, speaks of a “living-togetherness” or “cohabitation” of multiple, distinct but interconnected entities. In the context of Spanish history, la convivencia is an idea that attempts to describe the complex and interconnected nature of social organization between the people of the three major Abrahamic faiths operating within the historical and geographical proximity of the medieval Iberian Peninsula. Originally popularized in 1948 by the Spanish philologist and historian Américo Castro in his massively influential work, España en su historia, this idea of medieval convivencia between the adherents of three distinct monotheistic faiths was a defiant challenge 2 to popular contemporary narratives of Spanish history deeply rooted in hundreds of years of nationalist and romantic discourse; a discourse which emphasized the continuous nature of a true, united Spanish cultural identity traceable to the Romano-Gothic period of classical antiquity, while simultaneously downplaying the cultural influences of historical Muslim and Jewish societies that had also left their respective legacies on the cultural heritage of the peninsula throughout the medieval era.1 Although bitterly contested from its inception, especially by another prominent Spanish academic by the name of Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz, this idea of an inter-faith convivencia had an immense appeal in its ability to confront or conform to a variety of contemporary historical myths surrounding the nature of medieval religious coexistence and Spanish cultural identity. While undoubtedly serving as a milestone in the modern study of Spanish history, more recently Castro’s concept of convivencia has come under new academic scrutiny. Many now assert that the idea of a Spanish identity founded in a seemingly cooperative, inter-faith exchange during the medieval period is poorly evidenced in historical records, and at the worst can be interpreted as advancing its own form of historical mythology.2 To make things even more problematic, various interpretations of this medieval convivencia, whether they argue for an age of inter-religious harmony, or seek to disprove such a conception altogether, have themselves been used as political ammunition in a number of other arenas of historical contention, such as in questions of religious conflict between Christianity and Islam (complete with all the modern stigma and political discord that entails), or in the scope of Jewish history, which has at times 1 Kenneth Baxter Wolf. "'Convivencia' in Medieval Spain: A Brief History of an Idea," Religion Compass, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jan., 2009), 72-85. p. 72-74 2 For a summary of the weaknesses of “convivencia” as a model for understanding medieval Iberia, see: Maya Soifer. "Beyond Convivencia: Critical Reflections on the Historiography of Interfaith Relations in Christian Spain." Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies. no. 1 (2009): 19­ 35. 3 advanced the notion of a “golden age” of inter-faith harmony in medieval Andalucía, and at others argued the complete opposite, all in order to legitimize contemporary political struggles. 3 Perhaps most notable of all however, is that these very questions of religious tolerance, acculturation, and social identity that lie at the heart of Castro’s conception of convivencia, and that have stimulated so much politically charged historiographical debate throughout the centuries since the Middle Ages, were themselves used as political polemic during the medieval period as monarchs, chroniclers, and religious converts alike all sought to establish their own historical identity and political legitimacy defined in large part by how they were seen to interact with the religious “other”. From the ever-shifting 11th century political loyalties of El Cid and the turbulence of the “Reconquista”, to the contentious nature of religious terrorism of today, the very idea of convivencia and the medieval relationships it purports to describe have been manipulated and distorted throughout history to achieve various political goals based on rhetoric defining the nature of “us” vs. “them”. Starting in the medieval world and continuing through today, the question of tolerance and identity at the heart of convivencia has been innately, and divisively, political. In order to demonstrate the inherently political nature of the idea of convivencia and the religious relationships it purports to describe, this paper will examine a few of the myriad of ways in which religious identity and questions of tolerance have been manipulated in scholarship throughout time, stemming from the medieval period itself. Starting with the historiographical concerns over the traditional narratives of Spanish history that ultimately led to Castro’s 3 Mark R Cohen. Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, Princeton University Press, 1994. Cohen’s book provides a brief discussion of the way life under Islam in medieval Andalucía has been portrayed in both “lachrymose” and “neo-lachrymose” conceptions of Jewish history. 4 formation of convivencia, this paper will then examine the medieval roots of these historical narratives and argue that the manipulation of religious identity was used for political expediency during the medieval era itself through the imposition of rigid ideological boundaries of social identity over what were otherwise dynamic and fluid inter-religious relationships. Ending with a brief examination of how convivencia has remained academically relevant in recent decades, this paper will argue that questions of religious identity and coexistence in the medieval period as described by convivencia continue to be divisive and powerfully relevant to the political and religious concerns of modern-day society. “Eternal Spain” and the Rise of Convivencia Since his interpretation of convivencia is fundamentally connected to the rest of Spanish historiography, understanding the immediate historical context that inspired Américo Castro to publish his influential work in the first place is instrumental to illuminating the various historical myths and their political motivations that place the nature of religious coexistence in the medieval period at their core. Writing from the United States in exile from the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Castro originally formulated his idea of Spanish identity based in medieval convivencia in direct opposition to what he considered a “chauvinistic” narrative of Spanish history championed by the Spanish political establishment. Seemingly obsessed with the idea of a “collective inferiority complex” that he felt weighed down upon self-identifying Spaniards, especially in retrospect of the terrible Spanish Civil War of the late 1930’s, Castro 5 himself writes that his interest in history developed out of the question: “Where do the Spaniards get their ideas about themselves?”4 In attempting to answer this question, Castro echoes the same nationalistic and existential fascinations of earlier 18th and 19th century
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